Expiration Date
As I have stated My Dad used to say from time to time, “sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.”
Well today was one of the days that I sat and thought.
Therefore, what I was thinking about was my Mother pouring out some milk, and a statement I saw put on Facebook that said “we don’t have an expiration date.”
Well, I beg to differ.
We do have an “expiration date” the Bible says in:
Ecclesiastes 3:2 A time to be born, And a time to die; NKJV
We all will face death sometime or another.
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, NKJV
With that said, we all have an expiration date stamped on us. For most, we do not know when that day will be.
I truly believe we can accelerate that date and in the same thought, I believe we can also extend that date.
Ecclesiastes 7:17 Do not be overly wicked, Nor be foolish: Why should you die before your time? NKJV
The milk may have been poured out before its time; even when it was still good and it could still have some use after the appointed date stamped on the carton.
I think a lot our own lives are that way, we can take our own life before its time, or even taking years off our life with things like smoking, drinking, and as much as I hate to admit it over eating, I think we can do a lot of things to take years off our life.
I was playing a game of chess years ago on a computer. After a few minutes of play the game told me I had 12 moves left and I would be in check.
No way I thought, then after the next move it said I had less than 5 moves. Apparently, I made the wrong move. The computer knew every possible move I could make and already worked out how the game would end.
I think life is that way; we make the wrong move, and it cost time on our lives.
I also believe that God knows every possible move we can make and has an end planed for each move we make which gives us free will. However, God is always in charge and always knows the end.
Back to the game, I made 2 more moves and was in check and then mate. Needless to say, that I do not play that game anymore.
But the game of life goes on and what we do with it is up to us.
Ecclesiastes 2:16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever, Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come. And how does a wise man die? As the fool! NKJV
Solomon was the wisest man outside Jesus Himself to ever walk the earth, and he still had the same thoughts, discouragements, and worries as we do.
What is it all about?
We can work our whole life, and what we gather and accomplish, is gone when we are. I don’t have to be like that, I believe that it was Andy Stanley that said “you can’t take it with you when you go, but you can send it on ahead.”
Think for a moment, of the lives you have touched the souls that you were a part of sending on to Heaven eventually.
Through your giving to the Church for outreach and missions. By saying the right thing to the right person at the right time. By you personally to get to lead someone to the Lord.
You may say you never did anything like that. Well did you ever watch the nursery at a Church so the parents could sit in a service, or teach a Sunday School class or VBS class and planted a verse in a young child’s mind?
Ever drop an extra dollar in the plate for missions or for someone in need?
Ever send a card or a letter to encourage someone?
Have you ever dropped by the hospital to visit someone who hurts?
Have you ever brought a meal to someone in need or picked up a check after a meal for someone that hurts?
Jesus said it this way:
Matthew 25:40 “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” NKJV
Ecclesiastes 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. 14 For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil. NKJV
The saying “it ain’t over till it’s over” seems to apply. As long as you have breath, as long as you are on this side of the grass, you have a mission and that mission is to live for Christ.
Philippians 1:21a “For to me to live is Christ…”
For me to be alive Christ is alive, the reason the first century Christians got so extremely happy with a new convert. There was another person to live for Christ. Christ had another mouth to speak on His behalf, two more hands to carry His gospel, two more feet to go and help those in need.
My mentor Reverend Ben Turner once said “if you are going to hammer at least build something.” So, since you are still around do something profitable for the cause of Christ.
With that said we all have an expiration date stamped on us.
Don’t you want to accomplish something for Jesus before we meet Him face to face?
I was having lunch at Wallace Bar B Q one day and some waitress knowing that I am a minister, had a question about suicide. After hearing their questions, and hearing their concerns about the subject, I related the following story to them:
In 1991 the office job I had overseeing eight concrete construction crews, was taken away from me and I went from telling these foremen what to do, to working for one of them and asking how to do it. My pay was cut according to my accountant over $30,000.00 that year. I tried to keep living like I was, except on credit cards, but I soon found out that the Visa, Master Card, and American Express company’s want their money back after a while. (as if I didn’t know) I was behind on every payment, and that’s not what I do at all. I made sure the house payment was made, I may sit in a dark and cold house, but at least I would have a roof over my head.
My wife decided she didn’t want to be with me three years earlier, and so for three long years I would pray and beg God to send her home, believing that would happen and happen real soon.
But it didn’t happen, and the day came that a Deputy came knocking on my door and served me divorce papers, and I am now at what I was looking at as the end of all I could take, and that morning around 2:30 to 3:00am I heard Satan say “you don’t have to hurt like this, there is a way out, the 357 magnum is right there.”
I find it amazing when Satan talks to you it’s not in an echo chamber voice, or a dark deep evil voice, but it was in a soft southern draw, and sounded, well it sounded a lot like me, cause that’s how he does it, through my mind and in my voice.
I said God “I can’t take anymore, (and I couldn’t but I learned that night God can if I give it to Him.) so the rest of my talk with God went something like this, “I am about to see you face to face and if you don’t want me to do, what I am about to do you better stop me now” and (another conjunction, there is still more to the story.)
At that very moment as I watched the chamber turn and the shell line up as the hammer went back on that old Colt.
The phone rang. I thought, who could that be at this time of the night, God maybe? So, I sat the weapon down and picked up the phone. Before I could say hello, a preacher friend, Eddie Rogers, said “God told me to call you and tell you to STOP! Do you hear me?” I answered, “yes I hear you.” Ed then said, “can I go back to bed now?” I said “sure, and thanks” he said goodnight and hung up. I cleared the weapon and went to bed myself believing God was not near done with me.
A few weeks later as we were meeting for a prayer time for Eddies Ministry Sweet Spirit Band, I ask him if he remembered calling me that night, and he said he did, then I ask did he not want to know what was going on that night?
He said he thought I would share the reason with him when I was ready, so I told him the story, and waiting on “are you okay brother?” or “I am so sorry you are going through this.” Or even “just hang in their brother everything is going to be alright.”
Instead, I got “you idiot, (it’s good to have a few friends like that, just a few.) is that how you really want face God Almighty with a smoking gun in your hand?” I said, “no not really, and I promise it will never happen again.””
My Expiration Date could have been that day, my choice, I believe if I had pulled that trigger that moment it all would have ended right then.
A few weeks later after sharing that story that day at Wallace’s, I had a lady come up to our table and say, “I was here a couple a week ago, and I was setting right behind you when you told how you almost ended your life, and that you didn’t want to face God with a smoking gun in your hand. I was here to eat my final meal I have a chronic pain, and I was just going to eat and go home and take every pain pill I had and just end it all. But I thought did I really want to face God with a stomach full of pills. And after seeing how God is still using you, I went home and had a great talk with my Heavenly Father, and I just wanted to thank you for sharing what you went through, because it saved my life too.”
You never know who you are reaching, or how God is going to use you, or even when God will use you. It may be in a Bar B Q house in Austell, Georgia. Or in a pulpit in a church, just know when God is ready for you let Him do the calling, because you don’t want to pour out that milk before its time. You don’t want to face God for the first time with a smoking gun, a stomach full of pills, a bloody wrist, or any other than His reaching down and saying it’s time to come home.
Remember as we read earlier.
A time to be born,
And a time to die.
Don’t punch your Expiration date before Gods time.
